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North Koreans facts

While investigating facts about North Koreans, I found out little known, but curios details like:

Chinese newspaper cited The Onion naming the North Korean leader as the Sexiest Man Alive without realizing it was a joke

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North Korea is obsessed with Choco Pies from S Korea. There's a black market for them, and factories once used them to pay worker bonuses. In 2014, S Korean activists sent 10K pies to NK with helium balloons. After an injured NK defector crossed the DMZ in 2017, he was given a lifetime supply.

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In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering north korea government. Here are 50 of the best facts about North Koreans I managed to collect.

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  1. In 2007, a North Korean cargo vessel was captured by Somali pirates. Its distress signal was responded to by a nearby US destroyer, which provided medical assistance to injured NK sailors who were able to retake the vessel. It led to an unprecedented statement of gratitude by North Korean media.

  2. South Koreans have grown 3 inches taller than their North Koreans counterparts. They are genetically the same and have been living similar lives till divide in the last century. The nutritional difference of only 50/60 years has caused this difference.

  3. A North Korean defector who escaped to China, returned to see his family, then escaped again to Thailand, went to Argentina, then trekked through South and Central America to sneak into the US through Mexico. He is now a US citizen.

  4. A North Korean teen who was chosen to go to the International Mathematical Olympiad used it to escape North Korea and start a new life.

  5. There is little evidence that Kim Jong-il and the North Korean media ever claimed that he made any kind of improbable golf score. Even North Korean officials say it is an urban myth.

  6. The extent of North Koreas personality cult is such that in 2012 a 14-year-old North Korean schoolgirl drowned while attempting to rescue portraits of the two "supreme leaders" from a flood.

  7. North Koreans can be sentenced to "Three Generations of Punishment", meaning you and three generations of your family would be imprisoned

  8. It is mandatory for all North Koreans to vote, even though there is only one candidate for each office on the ballot

  9. Four South Korean woodcutters stumbled across the camp of a group of North Korean commandos on a mission to assassinate the South Korean president. The commandos lectured them on the benefits of communism and spared their lives, but their mission failed as the woodcutters had alerted the police.

  10. After only 73 years of separation, the Korean language spoken in the North and South have diverged so that 45% of North Korean defectors have trouble understanding South Koreans and 1% can't understand South Koreans at all

north koreans facts
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North Koreans data charts

For your convenience take a look at North Koreans figures with stats and charts presented as graphic.

north koreans fact data chart about The Average Face of North Korean Autocracy
The Average Face of North Korean Autocracy

north koreans fact data chart about Time series seismic data of the North Korean H-bomb test
Time series seismic data of the North Korean H-bomb test

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Dozens of North Korean "ghost ships", many containing corpses, have washed up on the Japanese coast in recent years.

In 1977, North Korean agents abducted a 13 year old Japanese girl while she was walking to school in Niigata, Japan. The agents then took the girl over to North Korea, was forced to teach infiltrator agents Japanese culture. She is still missing to this day - source

Kim Jong Il ordered the kidnap of South Korean filmmaker Shin Sang-ok and his wife to make movies for North Korea. They gained Kim's trust and allowed them to travel to Vienna, where they seeked asylum to US Embassy. Feared about their credibility, they secretly taped Kim's voice prior. - source

South Korean bootleggers made a plan to balloon drop Sony's "The Interview" to North Koreans, en masse. They had to cancel plans when North Korea learned of this and labeled such an action as "a declaration of war".

Sometime in 1981, President Ronald Reagan ordered an SR-71 to spy on a secret North Korean conference, not because there was anything to learn, but because the repeated sonic booms would interrupt the conference and there wasn't a weapon on earth which could shoot the craft down. - source

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US sailors captured by North Korea, were flipping the middle finger in photos to protest the propaganda on their treatment. The North Koreans for months photographed them without knowing the real meaning of the finger, while the sailors explained that the sign meant good luck in Hawaii.

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North Korean "researchers" have concluded that North Korea is the second happiest country behind China

North Korea filmed a movie in Japan in 1985, aimed at showing the oppression of Koreans in Japan. North Koreans, instead, drew the conclusion that Koreans were better off in Japan

Russia uses North Korean slaves in Siberian labor camps. Most slaves are unaware that they are no longer in Korea.

When a North Korean merchant vessel was attacked by Somali pirates, an American destroyer came to their aid. This event led to rare pro US statements from the North Korean media.

In 2014, South Korean Christians put up a Christmas tree visible from the North Korean Border. North Korea responded by calling it a "tool for psychological warfare" and threatened to bomb it.

North koreans infographics

Beautiful visual representation of North Koreans numbers and stats to get perspecive of the whole story.

north koreans fact infographic about History of North Korean Missile Development

History of North Korean Missile Development


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When North Korea sank a South Korean Warship in 2010, South Korea responded by blasting the hit K-Pop song "Hit your heart" across the border using large military loud speakers.

South Korea, despite having completed the transistion to digital broadcast (ATSC) in 2012, still maintains analogue broadcast near its borders for North Koreans watching South Korean TV in secret.

Any North Koreans that escape to South Korea are automatically granted citizenship upon arrival

Chinese tourists in North Korea has been criticized for throwing sweets at North Korean children 'like they're feeding ducks'

In 1975, North Korean embassy staff in Australia crashed their Mercedes, and when they went to the nearest house for help they were aghast to find that that they had knocked on the door of the South Korean ambassador’s residence.

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The parody Twitter account DPRK_News has been quoted by the New York Times, the Washington Post, Newsweek, and Fox News as if speaking for the real North Korean state news agency.

In 1953, a North Korean fighter pilot defected to South Korea with his MiG-15 and was rewarded $100,000 from the United States

In 1953, a North Korean fighter pilot defected to South Korea with his MiG-15 and was rewarded $100,000 from the United States.

A drunk North Korean man passed out on a wooden board to find himself in South Korea the next day as a flood washed him and the board to an island controlled by South Korea.

South Korea, despite having completed the transistion to digital broadcast (ATSC) in 2012, still maintains analogue broadcast near its borders for North Koreans watching South Korean TV in secret.

An illegally imported DVD of Titanic helped North Korean defector Yeonmi Park realize the oppressive nature of the North Korean government and gave her "a taste of freedom"

In 2014, Christians in South Korea put up a giant Christmas tree which was visible from the North Korean border. The North Koreans claimed it was a tool for psychological warfare and demanded it be taken down. The defence ministry claimed the was dismantled for safety concerns.

After 2 US officers were killed while trying to cut down a tree in the DMZ, the US and South Korea sent 813 soldiers, 27 helicopters and nuclear-capable bombers to the DMZ to supervise the cutting down of the tree. North Korean soldiers watched in silence as the tree was cut down in 42 minutes.

Hyonseo Lee, a North Korean defector who spent years helping her family escape to South Korea. When her family was arrested and held near the embassy, Lee could not afford the bribe to free them--a stranger from abroad heard her story and paid it. Lee and her family now live in South Korea.

North Korea did not return tens of thousands of South Korean POWs after the Korean War in 1953. They and their children were forced to work in coal mines for decades; 79 escaped from 1994 to 2009. Nine hundred US soldiers also may not have been returned.

In 2012 a 14-year old North Korean girl drowned while trying to save portraits of Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il, and the government renamed her school after her

According to a 2011 North Korean government study; China is the world's happiest nation, followed by North Korea. "The American Empire" came in last.

In North Korean Propaganda, Kim Jong Il's first ever time bowling was played across 13 games of bowling simultaneously and he scored 300 points on each lane. The bowling centre, Maxis Bowling Kangso shut down all of it's lanes forever in his honour.

Not clapping hard enough" was one of the reasons Jang Sung-taek, former North Korean official, was executed for

Due to over 60 years of separation, differences in the language have developed between South and North Korea. This leads to many hardships for North Korean defectors after they escape, because they have to relearn Korean.

This is our collection of basic interesting facts about North Koreans. The fact lists are intended for research in school, for college students or just to feed your brain with new realities. Possible use cases are in quizzes, differences, riddles, homework facts legend, cover facts, and many more. Whatever your case, learn the truth of the matter why is North Koreans so important!

Editor Veselin Nedev Editor